| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: nor yet leisure to wish for it. Indeed, there never was a parent
so fond and doting as he showed himself. He was continually uneasy
in his son's absence. Was the child abroad? the father would be
watching the clouds in case it rained. Was it night? he would rise
out of his bed to observe its slumbers. His conversation grew even
wearyful to strangers, since he talked of little but his son. In
matters relating to the estate, all was designed with a particular
eye to Alexander; and it would be:- "Let us put it in hand at once,
that the wood may be grown against Alexander's majority;" or, "This
will fall in again handsomely for Alexander's marriage." Every day
this absorption of the man's nature became more observable, with
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Daisy Miller by Henry James: all the servants when a gentleman comes and asks for Miss Miller."
"The servants be hanged!" said Winterbourne angrily.
"The poor girl's only fault," he presently added, "is that she
is very uncultivated."
"She is naturally indelicate," Mrs. Walker declared.
"Take that example this morning. How long had you known her at Vevey?"
"A couple of days."
"Fancy, then, her making it a personal matter that you should have
left the place!"
Winterbourne was silent for some moments; then he said, "I suspect,
Mrs. Walker, that you and I have lived too long at Geneva!"
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Death of the Lion by Henry James: His system, at any rate, was justified by the inevitability with
which I replied, to save my friend the trouble: "Dear no - he
hasn't read it. He doesn't read such things!" I unwarily added.
"Things that are TOO far over the fence, eh?" I was indeed a
godsend to Mr. Morrow. It was the psychological moment; it
determined the appearance of his note-book, which, however, he at
first kept slightly behind him, even as the dentist approaching his
victim keeps the horrible forceps. "Mr. Paraday holds with the
good old proprieties - I see!" And thinking of the thirty-seven
influential journals, I found myself, as I found poor Paraday,
helplessly assisting at the promulgation of this ineptitude.
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